Day 4 – Arjun and Richa take their turn under the sun

I was in Goa and finally part of all the action, excitement and drama. The weather did make its presence felt with it either being sweltering hot or pouring cats and dogs.

The 200m Butterfly was touted to be deciding race for the title of Best swimmer – Male, which was being hotly contested by Rehan Poncha and Arjun Muralidharan, and kept as the last event of the day. Arjun went into the lead from the beginning and never let Rehan come close to him. Arjun finished with a new National Record and made a clean sweep of the Butterfly events. But earlier in the evening, Arjun came in second in the 50m Backstroke, thereby reducing the pressure on Rehan.

Richa went on to win two gold medals and break the National record in the 1500m Freestyle.

The results for the day were:
1500m Freestyle (Men): The duel for the best long distance swimmer continued between Aaron D’Souza and Rohit Havaldar, with the latter going on to make it a double by winning with a time of 16:51.18. Aaron D’Souza finished second with a time of 16:58.90 and Merwyn Chen finished third with a time of 17:05.15.
The National Record stands in the name of Mandar Divase with a time of 16:17.58 set at the 2006 SAF Games in Colombo. Mandar did not participate due to an injury.
The Olympic qualifying time for this event is 15:45.12.



1500m Freestyle (Women): Richa Mishra showed her class by creating a new National Record with a time of 18:00.64. Aarti Ghorpade came in second almost 50seconds later with a time of 18:50.53 and Archana Gupta came in third with a time of 18:59.71.
This is not an Olympic event for women, though it is an event at the World Swimming Championships.

50m Backstroke (Men): This was the closest race of the competition with only 0.12 of a second separating the top three swimmers. Sandeep N A pipped National Record holder Arjun Muralidharan to second place with a time of 28.39, Arjun finished with a time of 28.49 and M B Balakrishnan finished third with a time of 28.51. M H Balakrishnan, who is new to the big league, wore a swim suit that was a big for him i.e. it was loose, and was definitely a factor that changed a potential gold to bronze.
The National Record stands in the name of Arjun Muralidharan with a time of 27.63 set at last year’s edition.
This is not an Olympic event, though it is an event at the World Swimming Championships.

50m Backstroke (Women): Shikha Tandon recovered quickly from a mediocre start to dominate the race and win comfortably with a time of 31.48. She narrowly missed out on bettering her own National Record and this resulted in Richa Mishra winning the title of Best Swimmer – Female*. Fariha Zaman came in second with a time of 32.80 and Amreen Malik came in third with a time of 34.37.
Shikha holds the National Record with a time of 31.32 set in 2003.
This is not an Olympic event, though it is an event at the World Swimming Championships.

50m Breaststroke (Men): Sandeep Sejwal completed the formality of making it a clean sweep of the Breaststroke events by comfortably winning with a time of 29.45. Arjun J P came in second with a time of 31.47 and S P Lenka came in third with a time of 31.83. Earlier in the day, Sandeep clocked 29.40 in the heats.
Sandeep also holds the National Record with a time of 29.36 set at the Asian Age-Group Swimming Championships last month.
This is not an Olympic event, though it is an event at the World Swimming Championships.

50m Breaststroke (Women): Lekha Kamath denied Tejaswini V a clean sweep of the Breaststroke events. Lekha finished first with a time of 36.57, Poorva Shetye finshed second with a time of 37.23 while Tejaswini finished third with a time of 37.91.
The National Record stands in the name of Saba Sait with a time of 35.63 set in 2004.
This is not an Olympic event, though it is an event at the World Swimming Championships.


200m Butterfly (Men): Arjun Muralidharan went on to make a clean sweep of the Butterfly events by winning the event with a personal best time of 2:03.05, and inching closer to making the Olympic qualifying mark. He led the race from start to finish. Rehan finished second with a time of 2:05.20 and Aaron finished third with a personal best time of 2:05.78. Aaron’s time is extremely creditable considering that he is only 15 and has a long way to go. His time would slot him as the 4th fastest 15 yr old in USA and 13th overall in the 15-16yr category (Click here for more info) .
The National Record stands in the name of Khazan Singh Tokas with a time of 2:02.38 set in the 1986. This is now the oldest standing record.
The Olympic qualifying time for this event is 2:01.79.

200m Butterfly (Women): Richa Mishra went on to lead the race from start to finish and win comfortably with a time of 2:20.80. Pooja Alva came in second with a time of 2:24.36 and Madhavi Giri came in third with a time of 2:37.10.
Richa holds the National Record with a time of 2:18.66 set at the Asian Age-Group Swimming Championships last month.
The Olympic qualifying time for this event is 2:15.42.

* Though Shikha and Richa won five gold medals each, Richa finished with one more meet record.